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Walk of Punishment
"Walk of Punishment" is the third episode of the third season of Game of Thrones. It is the twenty-third episode of the series overall.WinterIsComing.net, February 28, 2013. It premiered on April 14, 2013. It was written and directed by executive producers David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, marking their directorial debut for the series. Plot Summary Across the Narrow Sea Beyond the Wall In the Seven Kingdoms At Riverrun in the Riverlands, the castle-seat of House Tully, the funeral boat of the recently deceased Lord Hoster Tully - father of Catelyn Stark - is launched into the Red Fork of the Trident River. King Robb Stark has arrived with the main force of the Northern army, and he helps cast his maternal grandfather's funeral boat into the river, along with Hoster's younger brother Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully. Catelyn and Robb's wife Queen Talisa look on from the assembled crowd of bannermen on the dock. Hoster's youngest child, Catelyn's younger brother Edmure Tully, attempts to light the funeral boat on fire with a flaming arrow several times but fails. Just as the boat is about to disappear behind a bend of the river, Brynden pushes his nephew out of the way and skillfully makes the shot. In Catelyn's old chamber in the castle, she mourns with her uncle Brynden over her father's death. She asks him if he made peace with his older brother, whom he had been fighting with for the past thirty years. Brynden explains that he did: on his deathbed Hoster told him to stop calling himself "the Blackfish" as it was a stupid joke created over thirty years ago by Brynden to symbolize his bad relationship with his older brother, and it wasn't very funny to begin with. Brynden choked up to say that he'd been calling himself "the Blackfish" of the Tully family for so long that he's practically forgotten his own name. Catelyn is happy that her uncle was able to make peace with her father before he passed, and is upset that she couldn't have been there. She laments that she always looked out of this very window in her childhood home when her father left on campaign, but now he won't be coming back. She also wonders if her sons Bran and Rickon looked out of the window at Winterfell for her return, but she didn't come to save them. Brynden insists that neither he nor Robb have given up hope that the boys may be alive and in hiding, and neither should she. King Robb, Brynden, and Edmure confer in Riverrun's meeting room. The War of the Five Kings is not going well for them, as now that the Lannisters have defeated their enemies in the south and secured King's Landing from attack, as well as a marriage-alliance with House Tyrell, they have superior numbers, wealth, and strategic position. Edmure begins to boast to his nephew about the recent victory won by Tully forces under his direct command at the Battle of Stone Mill, which managed to push the Lannister army under Ser Gregor Clegane out of the Riverlands. Instead, Robb and Brynden are furious with Edmure: their grand strategy for the war was to lure Tywin and Gregor's Lannister armies into the Westerlands, where they would be vulnerable on foreign ground, and more importantly, to leave the capital city vulnerable to attack by the Baratheons (this was the entire point behind Robb's invasion of the Westerlands over the course of Season 2, i.e. his great victory at the Battle of Oxcross). Edmure's role in this was to offer token defense as a feint to lure the Lannisters back across the Red Fork of the Trident. Instead, by successfully attacking the Lannisters at Stone Mill, Edmure kept them penned in the Riverlands, and thus close enough to King's Landing that Tywin was able to rush to the defense of the city at the Battle of the Blackwater. The Starks' entire strategic position in the war has been ruined. Edmure insists that they took captives in the battle, Willem and Martyn Lannister, but Robb angrily points out that he didn't stop fighting because his sisters are held captive. Considering that Tywin didn't stop to negotiate when his own eldest son was captured, taking his younger nephews hostage will have no impact on the war. Edmure tries to at least point out that they lost only two hundred men at Stone Mill and multiple Lannisters died for every man they lost, at which Robb cuts him off and shouts that they need men more than the Lannisters do. At this point, the Lannisters are in such a good strategic position that they can afford to be patient, and grind down Robb through simple attrition. In the prison cells at Riverrun, Queen Talisa bandages some minor wounds that Willem and Martyn Lannister have. They are boys only 15 and 14 years old. One of them asks if Robb really eats the flesh of his enemies, and Talisa says no - except on full moons, and asks a guard if it's a full moon now. The boys realize she's joking. At King's Landing, Tywin Lannister calls the first meeting of the Small Council since he arrived in the city and assumed his position as Hand of the King. He has the meeting place changed to a room next to his own quarters, asserting his dominance. Tywin arrives early and has all of the council members called in at once, with seats on only one side of the table, as a non-verbal test to see how each of them reacts around him. Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish ambitiously pushes his way past everyone else to be the one who sits closest to Tywin. Varys rolls his eyes at Littlefinger's naked ambition and lets him pass, content to sit in the second-closest seat (for now). Grand Maester Pycelle, who is most focused on survival by avoiding direct conflict, doesn't try to fight over a better seat with either of them, instead quietly taking the third seat away from Tywin. Tywin's daughter Cersei arrives to find the seats are all occupied, but now wanting to play that game and be relegated to a lowly position, she pulls up a chair so she is sitting at Tywin's right hand, opposite Littlefinger. Tyrion is the only one who even mildly stands up to Tywin's posturing, by not even trying to sit closest to Tywin: instead he takes a new chair and makes a point of noisily dragging it across the ground until it is positioned at the exact opposite end of the table from his father. Tywin is upset with the three advisors, noting that between them, they possess the greatest number of spies in the world, yet none of them can locate his son Jaime, even though the entire Northern army has heard of his escape. Varys says they are trying but he simply cannot be found. Tywin asks what news there is of the war, and Varys reports that Robb has taken the bulk of his army to Riverrun for his grandfather's funeral, while leaving Lord Roose Bolton in command of Harrenhal. Varys makes a jab at Littlefinger's recent, titular promotion as Lord of Harrenhal, noting that this makes Roose Bolton the current Lord of Harrenhal in practice if not in name. However, Tywin says that Roose can keep it, because the title alone is enough to give Littlefinger the social standing to be a suitor to Lady Lysa Arryn. Littlefinger states that they have known each other since childhood, and Lysa has always adored him, and thus she will soon remarry to him. Pycelle notes that this will make Littlefinger the acting Lord Paramount of the Vale, an even more important position (Baelish is even wearing a more expensive tunic than usual, laced with gold, to reflect his new status). Tywin states that this will confirm that the Vale of Arryn, which has been neutral in the war up to this point, will not support Robb Stark, who is increasingly being hemmed in by enemies (other marriage alliances, with House Tyrell of the Reach and House Martell of Dorne, combined with the crushing of the Baratheons, have in turn secured the rest of southern Westeros under Lannister control). Tyrion points out that if Baelish leaves for the Vale that leaves a vacancy on the Small Council, and Tywin reveals that he has appointed Tyrion as the new Master of Coin to replace him. While this may seem like giving Tyrion a position of relative power again, Tyrion quickly points out that he has no prior experience in finance. With backhanded compliments, Cersei makes it clear that this promotion is really intended to give him an opportunity to make mistakes he will be blamed for. Appearances :Main: Walk of Punishment/Appearances Characters First *Hoster Tully (in his funeral boat) *Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully *Edmure Tully *Martyn Lannister *Willem Lannister *Marei *Gilly's baby Deaths * Skinner Production Cast Starring *Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister *Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister *Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister *Emilia Clarke as Khaleesi Daenerys Targaryen *Kit Harington as Jon Snow *Richard Madden as King Robb Stark *Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont *Michelle Fairley as Lady Catelyn Stark *Aidan Gillen as Lord Petyr Baelish *Charles Dance as Lord Tywin Lannister *Stephen Dillane as King Stannis Baratheon *Carice van Houten as Melisandre *Alfie Allen as Prince Theon Greyjoy *John Bradley as Samwell Tarly *Maisie Williams as Princess Arya Stark *Oona Chaplin as Queen Talisa Stark *Joe Dempsie as Gendry *Rose Leslie as Ygritte *James Cosmo as Lord Commander Jeor Mormont *Conleth Hill as Lord Varys *Jerome Flynn as Ser Bronn *Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane Guest starring *Ciarán Hinds as Mance Rayder *Robert Pugh as Craster *Ian McElhinney as Ser Barristan Selmy *Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth *Mackenzie Crook as Orell *Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr *Clive Russell as Ser Brynden Tully *Tobias Menzies as Lord Edmure Tully *Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane *Julian Glover as Grand Maester Pycelle *Iwan Rheon as Boy *Noah Taylor as Locke *Mark Stanley as Grenn *Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett *Burn Gorman *Hannah Murray as Gilly *Ben Hawkey as Hot Pie *Esme Bianco as Ros *Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne *Philip McGinley as Anguy *Dan Hildebrand as Kraznys mo Nakloz *Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei *Michael Shelford as Skinner *Clifford Barry as Greizhenhttp://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/credit.php?uid=1485838 *Gary Lightbody as Bolton soldier *Michelle Costello *Lisa Walsh *Josephine Gillan *Kylie Harris *Pixie Le Knot *Dean-Charles Chapman as Martyn Lannister *Timothy Gibbons *Mark Drake as Tortured slavehttp://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/view.php?uid=317145 Cast notes *22 of 28 cast members for the third season appear in this episode. *Starring cast members Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), Jack Gleeson (Joffrey Baratheon), Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark), Sibel Kekilli (Shae), and Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) are not credited and do not appear in this episode. Notes * The title of the episode comes from the Walk of Punishment in Astapor, where tortured or punished slaves are displayed. * This is the first episode of the series to be directed by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. * Bran and Rickon Stark's storyline does not appear in this episode. Sansa Stark, Joffrey Baratheon, Margaery and Olenna Tyrell do not appear in this episode. The preceding episode focused on the Sansa/Joffrey/Tyrell activities in King's Landing, while Tywin Lannister and the Small Council did not appear. This episode follows up on the other half of that, not featuring the characters seen last episode to focus on the activities of Tywin and the Small Council. *This episode marks the first time that Cersei Lannister has actually shared a significant scene interacting with her father Tywin. They did briefly share some scenes in "Blackwater" and "Valar Morghulis", but these scenes were in front of the entire court, and they weren't interacting directly. *The Iron Throne's debt problems, with the realm being an astonishing six million Gold Dragons in debt, were mentioned way back in episode 3 of Season 1, "Lord Snow", exactly twenty episodes ago. The outbreak of the War of the Five Kings didn't make such massive debts simply go away, and now the Lannisters have to come around to addressing this as a major problem. As Tyrion explains, Littlefinger always acted like he was brilliant at finding money, but it turns out that he was really borrowing massive amounts of money from foreign banks, such as the Iron Bank of Braavos. *Catelyn's uncle Brynden Tully calls himself "the Blackfish" because of his rocky relationship with his older brother, stemming from Brynden's refusal to take part in a marriage-alliance to House Redwyne which Hoster proposed for him. This led to Hoster calling him the black sheep of the Tully family, but pointing out that the Tully symbol is a fish, Brynden decided that this made him the "Black-fish" of the Tully family. Brynden took as his personal sigil the normal blue and red Tully heraldry, but with the silver fish replaced with a black one. *In a moment of anger, Robb Stark tells Edmure Tully that Tywin Lannister has his own sisters captive (really, just Sansa), yet this hasn't made Robb stop fighting, thus Tywin Lannister won't stop fighting just because Edmure captured Tywin's "father's brother's great-grandsons!" Willem and Martyn Lannister are actually the younger sons of Kevan Lannister (and younger brothers of Lancel), and thus Tywin's nephews. Robb's point still holds that they're younger nephews and thus minor relations compared to Tywin having Robb's own sisters, plus Tywin didn't even stop the war when his own eldest son Jaime was Robb's prisoner. Robb was apparently just speaking loosely out of anger, to punctuate his point, rather than drastically changing the family relationships of Willem and Martyn (i.e. it was similar to shouting "his fifth cousin three times removed!"). In the books :See Differences between books and TV series - Season 3#Walk of Punishment *This episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Storm of Swords: **Chapter 15, Jon II: The wildling host arrives at the Fist of the First Men. Mance Rayder sends Jon Snow with a small party to climb the Wall and attack Castle Black. **Chapter 17, Arya II: The Brotherhood Without Banners departs the Inn at the Crossroads; Hot Pie remains behind to work at the inn. **Chapter 19, Tyrion III: The Small Council convenes, Lord Petyr Baelish agrees to travel to the Eyrie to woo Lysa Arryn and form an alliance against the Starks. **Chapter 21, Jaime III: Jaime tries to spare Brienne from being raped and killed by telling his captor that she comes from a rich house, but gets his hand cut off as a lesson. **Chapter 23, Daenerys II: Daenerys debates with Jorah Mormont and Barristan Selmy on whether to purchase the Unsullied, and wonders what her brother Rhaegar would have done. **Chapter 27, Daenerys III: Daenerys agrees to buy all of the Unsullied in Astapor for one of her dragons, and purchases Missandei from the Good Masters. **Chapter 33, Samwell II: The Night's Watch survivors arrive at Craster's Keep. **Chapter 35, Catelyn IV: The Tullys honor Lord Hoster with a traditional funeral. Robb Stark learns of a strategic blunder by Edmure. Marketing Promotional Images Robb_3x03.jpg|Robb Tyrion_littlefinger_3x03.jpg|Tyrion and Littlefinger Walk_of_Punishment_still_Tyrion.png|Tyrion Lannister References Category:Season 3 Category:Season 3 Episodes